GRANVILLE, Ohio (October 8, 2022) – The first North Coast Athletic Conference match at home of the 2022 season for the Denison University volleyball team saw the Big Red sweep Ohio Wesleyan University 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-21) on Saturday afternoon inside Livingston Gymnasium.

Despite jumping out to an 8-1 lead in the opening set after back-to-back service aces by Sadie Habeeb, the Big Red had to work hard to win each set as OWU refused to go down quietly.

Denison doubled up the Battling Bishops at 12-6 in the first set after a kill by Cailey Johns, but OWU responded with an 8-1 run to go up 14-13. Then three straight points for the Big Red beginning with an assisted block by Johns and Sidney Gossard allowed Denison to take a 16-14 lead before expanding its run to 7-2 to go up 20-16 on a kill by Kelly McCaskey.

An assisted block by McCaskey and Johns, the fourth block of the first set for Denison, followed by a kill by McCaskey brought up set point at 24-18 before yet another kill by McCaskey three points later put the Big Red up 1-0 on the scoreboard.

Denison again led early in the second set (7-2) before another 8-1 run for OWU, this one finishing with four straight Big Red attack errors to put the Bishops ahead 10-8.

From there, neither team scored more than two points in a row until the Big Red rattled off four straight points to go up 20-17. OWU got back to within one at 21-20 before Denison put its foot down and got to set point on back-to-back kills by Lucy Anderson and Gossard before Anderson ended it with her sixth kill of the set two points later.

In the third and final set, neither team led by more than two until a 5-0 Denison run featuring three straight aces by Anderson made it 19-13. However, OWU battled back once again with a 6-1 run to get back to within one at 20-19 before a kill by Johns and an ace by McCaskey made it 22-19. An ace by Jenna Corrao, the seventh ace of the set by Denison, brought up match point at 24-20 before Anderson, as she does so often, ended things with a kill two points later.

Gossard led the Big Red with 11 kills while Anderson had 10 kills and hit .321 percent and Johns had nine kills while hitting .421 percent. Anderson also added four aces and four blocks, her fifth match in a row with at least four blocks, while Sophie Tight recorded 34 assists, her third match in a row with 31 or more assists in only three sets.

Three Denison players reached double digits in digs, led by McCaskey with a new career-high 18 digs and followed by Corrao with 13 and Habeeb with 10.

With the win, Denison improves to 8-9 overall and 2-0 in the NCAC while OWU, which had swept both Hiram College and Oberlin College in conference action coming into the match, suffered its first conference loss and dropped to 7-10 and 2-1.

Next up for Denison will be a road matchup at Kenyon College starting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, October 12.